The Collector Quotes

Freddie Clegg I kept thinking perhaps it was my fault, after all, that she did what she did and lost my respect. Then I thought, no. It was her fault. She asked for everything she got. My only mistake was aiming too high. I ought to have seen I'd never get what I wanted from someone like Miranda with all her la-di-da ideas and clever tricks. I ought to have got someone who would respect me more. Someone ordinary. Someone I could teach.

Taglines She is young and innocent. He is young...and not so innocent.

Miranda Do you mind telling me where we are and who you are? … You've gone to a lot of trouble. All those clothes in there, all those art books. I'm your prisoner, but you want me to be a happy prisoner. Why? Since you know my father isn't a rich man, it isn't for ransom, as you say. The only other thing is sex.

Freddie It's not that at all. I shall have all the proper respect.

Miranda Then why am I here?

Freddie I want you to be my guest.

Miranda Your guest? I don't want to be your guest! Let me go!

Freddie I love you. Funny thing is — I told myself a dozen times — I wasn't going to tell you. I was going to let it come natural on both sides. But I touched you just then. It came out. You see at home in Reading we used to travel on the same bus together. I even sat next to you once or twice. I used to watch you all the time. And then, when you got the scholarship and went to London I thought I'd forget you. From the first time I saw you, l... I think I knew you were the only one.

Miranda I don't understand all this. I don't understand why you brought me here.

Freddie I want you to get to know me.

Miranda But you don't kidnap people so they'll get to know you. Don't you realize the trouble that you could get into?

Freddie I don't care.

Miranda I've stayed the four weeks.

Freddie I just have to have you here a little longer.

Miranda Why? What more can I do? What more can you want?

Freddie You know what I want... it's what I've always wanted. You could fall in love with me if you tried. I've done everything I could to make it easy. You just won't try!

Freddie Clegg I suppose it was the loneliness... and being far away from anyplace that made me decide to buy the house. And after I did, I told myself I'll never go through with the plan — even though I'd made all the preparations ... and knew where she was every minute of the day.

Taglines You won't dare open your mouth, but you'll be screaming for her to escape!

Miranda Oh, God! This is like a lunatic asylum. Look, people must be searching for me. All of England must be searching for me. Sooner or later, they're going to find me.

Freddie Never. Because, you see — they're looking for you, all right — but nobody's looking for me.

Miranda How long are you gonna keep me here?

Freddie I don't know. It depends.

Miranda On what? On my falling in love with you? Because if that's what you want, I'm going to be here until I die!

Freddie That's a good painting, isn't it?

Miranda Yes, it's a ].

Freddie People don't look like that.

Miranda Well, of course they don't. He's not trying to draw a face as it is. He's trying to express a face as he sees it and feels it.

Freddie Him seeing it that way makes it good?

Miranda But it's not a photograph.

Freddie What's wrong with photographs?

Miranda Nothing wrong with photographs.

Freddie Photographs don't lie!

Miranda Neither does this. … It's a face from all different angles. It's a character behind the face.

Freddie It's just a joke, that's all it is! It's just a bad joke!

Miranda Because you can't grasp it right away...

Freddie Well, how do I grasp it? I'll tell you something about this. It doesn't ] anything! Not just to me. To anybody else. You just say it does because some professor somewhere told you it did! It makes you so superior — you and all your friends. I don't think one-in-a-million, decent, ordinary people would say this was any good. It's rubbish! Rubbish, that's all it is! And the book, too, that's just as bad. It's filthy! Oh, you're so blooming clever, aren't you? You and all your friends. I can just see me with the lot of you. I'd be a right laugh, wouldn't I? Well, you're not gonna get me in that position. Not... Not you, not anybody, ever!

Freddie I've been collecting all my life. I'm an entomologist. I won a hobby prize for this setting. And most of these come from Central America. I correspond with a monk who sends me larvae, and then I incubate them myself. You see that? This is a leaf butterfy. Looks just like two leaves. These are my chalkhills. And... these are my Adonis blues. I bred that aberration myself. And it's better than any they've got in the Natural History Museum. These are my fritillaries. That's the silver-washed and that's the medium brown beckerwood, red admiral, swallowtail, peacock.

Miranda They're beautiful — but sad. How many butterfies have you killed?

Freddie You can see.

Miranda Think of all the living beauty you've ended.

Freddie That's silly. What difference does a few specimens make to a whole species?  Be careful. It's very rare.

Miranda Let it go.

Freddie You're joking. Don't do that! I may never get another one.

Miranda And now you've collected me, haven't you? Don't you see what's happened? You've had this — this dream with me in the center of it. It's not love — it's the sort of dream young boys have when they reach puberty, only you've made it come true.

Freddie I'll tell you something. There'd be a blooming lot more of this if more people had the time and the money!

Miranda We all want things we can't have.

Freddie We all take what we can get! I never had your advantages. My father wasn't a la-di-da doctor. I never went to a posh school. I was just a clerk in a bank.

Miranda Reading." … Of course! You won a fortune on the pools! You had your picture in the paper! I remember now! You could do so much! You could travel, learn, meet people. You could have a wonderful life! But this is death, don't you see? Nothing but death! These are dead. I'm dead. Everything here is dead. Is that what you love? Death?

Taglines Almost a love story.